Allegiant Airlines

I am taking a moment to write something unrelated to food or fitness to tell you about the horrible service we received while flying on Allegiant airline recently.  On June 23, 2013, we were on a flight from Las Vegas to Boise in the early afternoon.  It was extremely hot.  As we were all boarding, the plane became increasingly more uncomfortable.  Most of the passengers were mildly grumbling about the lack of air flow coming from the overhead vents.  The flight attendants were gossiping at the front of the plane, giving no attention to their uncomfortable passengers.  Boarding was finished and they were preparing for departure.  At this point, most folks are in a full on sweat. 

Besides the heat and the gossiping crew, the flight attendants were rude and unhelpful.  I witnessed one flight attendant interact with a passenger regarding his knapsack.  He was in the front row where there is nowhere to place his carry-on.  I heard the attendant say, rather sternly, “Well, you’ll just have to go find a place for that!  You can’t hold it on your lap!”; which completely surprised me, as I have never heard a flight attendant say such a thing.  Normally, they say something like “let me help you find a place for that.” 

At this point, the heat is almost unbearable.  The air is so stagnant, I felt as though I could hardly breathe.  Even if we could have some warm air circulating through the cabin, it would be better than nothing.  I asked one attendant if we would get some air movement soon and she barely responded with something about the plane moving away from the gate.

The normal announcements commence.  At the end of the safety announcement, the attendant speaking on the intercom said to please let them know if there is anything they can do to make our flight more comfortable.  The entire plane pleaded “air -- turn on the air”.  Nothing was said to address our pleas.  As the attendants were walking the aisles performing their last check, I asked her politely and in earnest, when the air flow would begin.  She barely acknowledged me, as she was walking away, telling me that soon enough I would be complaining that it’s too cold!  I couldn’t believe that response.  This is supposed to be a service industry, is it not?  That was beyond rude & completely unprofessional!

After sweating us out with the extreme heat & lack of circulation, then they served refreshments; which, much to our surprise, were not complementary.  So, most of us (undoubtedly parched) went without because we didn’t want to pay $3.00 for a soda.  The flight attendant serving drinks acted irritated that I didn’t realize it was not complementary.  Then, the lady in front of me tried to hand the attendant some trash to which she was met with a snotty response that she did not have the trash bag ; and she actually refused to take the item from the lady.  I found this surprising because she had the cart right in front of her.  Every other flight I’ve been on has had a trash on the cart.  A place for the attendants to place their empties, etc.

Well, the flight proceeded and finally air flow did start to cool things off.  And, true to her word, it became so blistery cold that everyone who had a sweater, put it on.  It was frigid in that plane by the time we landed in Boise, but not one person said a word about it.  We just took our lumps like troopers.  I have no idea if the crew has control over the temperature in the plane, but it seemed like the attendants plummeted the thermostat on purpose – froze us out to be hateful & vengeful.  They really showed us!  Don’t you dare complain!  Not one single member of that crew made us feel valued.  No one made any attempt to explain the temperature issues.  Not a single word or announcement saying, “hey, folks, we know it’s hot, we are so sorry… we are working on the issue…” or “this is what’s going on… “, etc.  Not a word of explanation.

Finally, we landed in Boise.  Horrible experience over and they have the nerve to ask us to turn around and crisscross the seat belts so that they can better prepare for the turn-around flight right back to Vegas.  After being treated like that, I am not interested in making their job any easier.  Not one of those people should be in the service/safety/airline industry.  I found them hateful, rude and condescending.  We will never, ever fly with that airline again.